Ali Shariati died at only 44 years of age, in controversial circumstances in London on June 19, 1977, three weeks after leaving Iran for exile. It is widely assumed that he was assassinated by SAVAK, although British authorities ruled that he had died of natural causes. This early death may explain why much of his work has a sense of being part of a work in progress — the work in question being Shariati’s own intellectual development.
His ideas clearly evolved over time, and he was reportedly prone to thinking out aloud and developing his ideas as he went. Unfortunately for those trying to analyse his thinking, he never produced a major single work rounding up the completed form of his ideas in even one of the many areas in which he worked.
